Ex-Rep. Ellen Tauscher backs Stark's foe

POLITICS

Carla Marinucci

Updated 11:24 pm, Thursday, July 12, 2012

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Local politians Ellen Tauscher, (left) and Dianne Feinstein tour the target chamber of the National ignition Facility in Livermore, Calif. on Friday May 29, 2009. The Lawrence lIvermore National Lab held a dedication ceremony tooday for the long awaited project. less

Local politians Ellen Tauscher, (left) and Dianne Feinstein tour the target chamber of the National ignition Facility in Livermore, Calif. on Friday May 29, 2009. The Lawrence lIvermore National Lab held a ... more

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Representative Pete Stark speaks to the Chronicle Editorial Board on Tuesday, May 1, 2012 in San Francisco, Calif.

Representative Pete Stark speaks to the Chronicle Editorial Board on Tuesday, May 1, 2012 in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Russell Yip, The Chronicle

Ex-Rep. Ellen Tauscher backs Stark's foe

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The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, one of the nation's top antiterrorism, energy and nuclear weapons research facilities, became the focus of an East Bay congressional race this week when former Rep. Ellen Tauscher called her longtime House colleague Pete Stark "hostile" to the facility - and endorsed his challenger.

Tauscher, who for 12 years represented the district where the lab is located, said national security issues could be compromised if Stark is elected to a 20th term. She is the most prominent Democrat yet to back Stark's opponent, Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Eric Swalwell, in the race between two Democrats.

"You can't have a member of Congress who is hostile to the largest employer in the district, one that has achieved so many important scientific gains for the American people and the country," said Tauscher, who retired from Congress in 2009 to become undersecretary of state for arms control.

Tauscher, now a U.S. State Department special envoy for strategic stability and missile defense, said the person elected to represent the 15th Congressional District in southern Alameda County not only must recognize the importance of "a safe and reliable and effective nuclear stockpile, but all the other things that the lab has brought to us," including thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in economic investment in the region.

"It's important that we have somebody ... with the aptitude and the attitude to do what's right, and not be either agnostic - or working against it," Tauscher said.

Critical of lab

Stark, one of Congress' most liberal members, has been critical of the Livermore lab for years, particularly of one of its primary missions - designing nuclear weapons. Founded by the University of California nearly six decades ago, the lab has a $1.2 billion annual budget and is operated by a management team that includes Bechtel Corp. and the University of California.

Swalwell, 31, a Dublin city councilman, is challenging Stark, 80, for the seat in the newly redrawn 15th Congressional District. Swalwell finished just 7 points behind Stark in the June primary, and is a former congressional intern for Tauscher, who represented the district from 1997 to 2009.

With the entire Bay Area congressional delegation endorsing Stark, whose nearly 40 years in Washington makes him the state's longest-serving House member, Tauscher's public break from her former colleagues underscores the changing politics and new demographics of the East Bay.

Antiterror credentials

Stark, who has proudly touted his antiterrorism credentials, has opposed federal funding of nuclear weapons development at the lab and the potential environmental impacts of such research. He won the backing of environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and many liberals in his former 13th Congressional District, which included Fremont, Union City and Newark.

But under redrawn legislative boundaries, much of the 15th district that Stark seeks to represent includes the more conservative Livermore Valley, an area he hasn't represented for years. The region is home to two national research facilities, Sandia National Laboratories and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which employs 7,000 people.

Stark's opposition to the Livermore lab made headlines in the 1990s when it sought to build the world's largest laser for energy research. He co-signed a letter with every other member of the California congressional delegation in support of the plan, but after meeting with antinuclear activists, he opposed it - without explanation.

Jeff Garberson, a former lab spokesman who is deputy chairman of the Livermore Lab retirees association, said Stark "hated the lab" when he represented the Livermore area. "He loathed it and spoke harshly about it in public meetings."

In an address at a school in Livermore, Stark said of the lab, "We ought to pack it up and move it to Nevada," Garberson said, a statement that stunned many lab employees in the audience.

"The attitude was that it was a terrible place, and despite what the federal government wants and what Congress has voted, you should get rid of it," Garberson said. "It was very discouraging to hear from your congressman."

Campaign differs

Stark's campaign manager, Sharon Cornu, released a statement Thursday describing Stark's view of the national labs, calling him "an enthusiastic supporter of basic research and the jobs it creates in our communities."

When asked about Stark's past criticism of nuclear weapons funding and research, Cornu said Stark "has been very vocal in his support for the scientific and economic mission of the lab and its important work in maintaining the current nuclear arsenal." Cornu said he does not support "an expansion of the U.S. nuclear stockpile."

Stark supports the national lab "in promoting alternative energy, an open campus, the National Ignition Facility (which aims to create nuclear fusion) and supercomputing" and that he has "the support of President Obama, Sens. (Dianne) Feinstein and (Barbara) Boxer and the entire current Bay Area Congressional delegation."

Swalwell said Stark has no such record of support for the lab and cited the laser project that Stark opposed, which he said has created countless jobs and key energy research. The labs are "an economic engine," he said. "You have to appreciate what they do, and Stark has never done that.

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"For the last 40 years, Congressman Stark has denounced the laboratories," Swalwell added. "His sudden 'support' as he fights for his political life should be dismissed by the voters as nothing more than ... deceitful."

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